Quotes of the day

posted at 10:47 pm on May 5, 2011 by Allahpundit

“At a press conference at Lambeth Palace, The Daily Telegraph asked [the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan] Williams whether he thought the US had been right to kill bin Laden.

“After declining to respond initially, he later replied: ‘I think the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling, because it doesn’t look as if justice is seen to be done in those circumstances.’”

***
“‘We’re back, not to square one, but perhaps square four in anti-Americanism,’ said Nicole Bacharan, a scholar of the United States at the Institute of Political Studies, or Sciences Po, in Paris. ‘Whatever happens, we need to prove we are different or better, that we are so much more refined and delicate and have such a respect for the law,’ she said, characterizing the European stance. ‘It’s very silly.’…

“Nicolas Demorand, editor of the left-leaning French daily Libération, on Tuesday bemoaned the ‘toxic rhetoric’ of the campaign against terrorism. From that rhetoric, he wrote, stems ‘this base, uncomfortable joy, unprecedented in a democracy, that blew yesterday over the streets of New York.’

“Even the editor of the centrist weekly L’Express, Christophe Barbier, cautioned, ‘To victory one must not add provocation.’ He added: ‘To desecrate the cadaver or the memory of Bin Laden is to revive him. To cry one’s joy in the streets of our cities is to ape the turbaned barbarians who danced the night of Sept. 11. It is to tell them the ghastly competition continues between them and us.’”

***
“[N]ow many of Obama’s erstwhile Euro-fans are feeling a twinge of buyer’s remorse. By ordering a covert raid on Pakistan that resulted in Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of Navy SEALs, Obama has earned the kind of condemnation [from] Europe’s cognoscenti once reserved for his predecessor, George W. Bush…

“The fashionable critique of Obama and the U.S. achieved its purest form on ARD Television, Germany’s equivalent of the BBC, where commentator Jörg Schoenenborn pompously observed that nothing good could come from Obama’s Bush-like breach of international law. ‘Al Qaeda will seek revenge,’ he asserts, ‘so, is the world any safer? No.’ Yet Americans dance in the streets, which Scheonenborn attributed to something essential, and essentially primitive, in the American character. The USA is, after all, ‘quite a foreign land to me. What kind of country celebrates an execution in such a way?’

“It never occurs to Schoenenborn that Americans might not be celebrating bin Laden’s death as such but the suddenly real chance that a long and costly struggle could end — and end in victory, no less. To be sure, optimism does not come naturally in Central Europe, for good historical reasons. And victory is not a word that comes readily to the lips of U.S. officials waging this war. But it’s actually quite rational to suppose that the decapitation of al Qaeda, plus the exposure of its Pakistani safe haven and the recovery of a vast intelligence trove may, in fact, hasten the organization’s end. Certainly the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter than it was before.”

***
“It is true, of course, that the killing of bin Laden raises moral and legal issues; but it has also exposed once again the unedifying strain of latent anti-Americanism among the liberal intelligentsia. When everything is taken into account, the ethical balance must come down on the side of Mr Obama, whatever ‘uncomfortable feeling’ this causes the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is perverse to portray the victims as the villains of the piece, and vice versa. The death of bin Laden should be a cathartic moment for the American nation, which has lost much blood and treasure confronting a terrorist evil. Mr Obama need not apologise for having done the right thing.”

***
“But the disdain for American joy about bin Laden’s death goes deeper than mere snobbery or concerns about local Muslims. It’s not just that Western European intellectuals don’t like the United States—they never have—but their unwillingness to countenance aggressive Western self-defense against Islamist terror is a function of their loss of belief in Western civilization itself. Many on the continent seem to have lost any sense that their countries and way of life as well as their faith is something worth defending. When it comes down to it that, and not the faux sophistication of Euro elites, is the difference between America and Europe these days.

“For all of our problems and divisions, most Americans still believe in their country. All too many of our friends across the pond have lost faith in theirs. And that crisis in confidence, not good taste, is why Americans and not Europeans are celebrating the death of bin Laden.”

***
“In blogs and online forums, some people asked: Doesn’t taking revenge and glorying in it make us look just like the terrorists?

“The answer is no, social scientists say: it makes us look like human beings. In an array of research, both inside laboratories and out in the world, psychologists have shown that the appetite for revenge is a sensitive measure of how a society perceives both the seriousness of a crime and any larger threat that its perpetrator may pose.

“Revenge is most satisfying when there are strong reasons for exacting it, both practical and emotional.”

Blowback

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I, too have reservations about killing an un-armed (allegedly) man. BUT OBL could have given himself up to US authorities anytime this last 10 years. Had he so wished, I’ m sure he could have surrendered to the SEALs.(The astonishingly light casualties prove that the mission was carried out with discrimination).

OBL had free-will. Last time I looked that was a major aspect of Christianity. OBL could have altered the outcome had he so wished. He could also have not organized the killing of 3,000 people.

When Williams became Arch-Bishop, we were told he was a great theologian. I have never heard him mention Jesus. Is he in fact a Christian? He reads the Guardian, that’s for sure. As Arch-Bishop he’s a mess.

Don’t mistake the so called “intelligentsia” of Europe with it’s people. You know, the remaining 99.99% of Europeans…those were, at least 9 to 1, very happy with the way Bin Laden ended.

madne0 on May 6, 2011 at 7:19 AM

Well said. A note to all of those basically saying “crew Europe”- the opinions of the New York Times and CNN do not represent American opinion any more than these “intelligentsia” represent every European. Cherry picking a few quotes to show European disdain for the operation is no more representative of what we think than if I took my opinion of all Americans from Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and The View.

Britain has lost hundreds of men and had many more maimed fighting in the war against Al Qaeda and their allies. If you think that the average Briton isn’t glad Bin Laden took a bullet in the head, you’re absolutely 100% wrong. The only thing we might have cause to complain about is that the SAS or SBS didn’t do it!

I think they are upset because so many of the young were celebrating it means their “Social Justice” brainwashing isn’t working LOL! No Moral Equivalence for the youth of America. They were out in the streets celebrating: ding dong the witch is dead, the witch is dead, ding dong the wicked witch is dead – He’s gone below, below where all the bad ones go, ding dong the wicked witch is dead. It really isn’t that complicated a reaction.

Maybe Europeans don’t mind losing member’s of their society to attrition. But Individualism is a live and well in America we care when even (1) American is killed let alone the pain of thousands killed by this mass murderer. Europe is using some kind of herd system where they expect to lose some of the herd to predators. We still think of people as humans – not cows or herds. Although given the Bishop of Canterbury’s response one wonders what his “Flock” looks like.

Is it immoral to shoot and put down the mad dog? Isn’t that what OBL was after all a megalomaniac a mad dog angry at the U.S. because his father was aboard a plane piloted by an American Pilot. My question is what would have happened if his father was in a plane piloted by an English or French, German person? And their country was in the cross hairs of Bin Laden’s stunted emotional rage? Remember his father died when he was 9 years old – OBL looks to have suffered from some kind of emotional retardation -stunted emotional growth. (An autopsy was in order he was damaged goods) But by no means should the Europeans do more than make a compulsory superficial analysis of our reaction to taking down a mass murderer. Who also attacked gleefully two European countries, England and Spain and threatened more. No it’s all about the U.S.’s response was it sophisticated enough? Bin Laden stated that the U.S. had become feminized – there is no description that fits for what Europe has become – wusses just doesn’t get it. I really think we need the UN to leave U.S. Soil, it needs to be moved to European country, and we need to cancel our membership. The UN has never lived up to it’s expectations.

I have a very uncomfortable feeling, continuing to spend billions, defending a people who obviously don’t want defending.

MNHawk on May 6, 2011 at 6:55 AM

I’m grateful there’s a huge body of water btw us.
Let’s concentrate on our borders here at home.
Altho I think a presence in Europe is still warranted.

Jay Mac on May 6, 2011 at 7:56 AM

I think a lot of Europeans are sick of their Euro-Union trash.
I’m just not sure they have the moxy to do what it takes to turn things around.
Such a shame.
But look at us. We have let some really stupid things happen. And we continue to let them happen.
The thing about Americans is tho we are extremely independent.
We do not recognize class. We are all equal. Something it seems a lot of Europeans do not have inbred into them.

Reason number 74,789,784 of why I hate bigoted, generalizing atheists.

jawkneemusic on May 6, 2011 at 12:03 AM

After my clarification… I’m puzzled by this comment.

I’m so thoroughly a Bible-believing Christian that I posited that it is “organized religion” (the largest and most “respected” versions which do not hold the Bible up as the absolute arbiter of all truth) that gives the world a twisted view of Christianity. Because of the “organization” their opinions carry some degree of “authority” that these individuals would not have without their “organizations” giving them titles and backward collars.

My book (available at amazon via my username link) is an allegorical story for kids teaching them the value of an individual search for truth. Most Christians do not have an individual theology, they merely adopt the theology of the group they were either born into or influenced by.

This D-Bag has almost single handedly reduced the once great Anglican Community to laughing stock. His pronouncements carry about as much weight as a fart in the wind. Maybe that’s because he’s talking out of his ass.

I think a lot of Europeans are sick of their Euro-Union trash.
I’m just not sure they have the moxy to do what it takes to turn things around.
Such a shame.
But look at us. We have let some really stupid things happen. And we continue to let them happen.

Badger40 on May 6, 2011 at 8:13 AM

Here in the UK our problem is that both political parties are virtually identical. Our Tories are basically equivalent to the worst of your RINOs.

Class isn’t an issue- it’s the fact that too many people just want to get on with their lives and don’t have much of an option when it comes to the ballot box. Labour wants to spend lots, the Tories want to spend marginally less and on different things. No one is there saying we need to slash the size and scope of government and get them out of people’s lives. Trust me- another generation or two of Americans growing up used to government interference in every facet of their lives and it’ll start to affect the USA too.

Hope it never happens but as Reagan said, the closest thing to everlasting life is a government program. The more insidious these groups like Energy & the EPA & dozens of others spread their tendrils, the more people grow accustomed to having the government there & the less independence there is (EPA regulating milk?). Think about all the new laws, agencies, standards, regulations that exist now that didn’t ten or twenty years ago. Add another couple of decades on and there won’t be less, there’ll be thousands more at the local, state and federal level. Americans are an independent lot and I wouldn’t have it any other way- but that independence is being killed off with the death of a million government regulations. Your kids & your grandkids are going to have much different definitions of independence than you do- or your father or grandfather did.

The UK & the US aren’t that different- our politicians just got a good few decades head-start on pushing their interfering noses into every part of our lives.

Who cares what the Euros think? Without the Pax Americana since WWII, how many more Roman numerals would have had to have been added to that term by now? Those pathetic betas with their 35-year penis measuring contests would have destroyed the entire planet by now.

To think, how much of the national debt would simply not exist without our having forgiven them the ENTIRE war debt from WWII and rebuilding their patehtci continent FOR FREE with the Marshall Plan?

What do you mean “without attribution”? If you click on the blue text, the entire article is available.

Cindy Munford on May 6, 2011 at 9:44 AM

You have to admit, the HA style of attribution is unconventional and new members sometimes don’t catch on. A link inside a paragraph in a random position generally indicates a link to further information about that phrase, not the source of an entire block of text.

Speaking as a life long Episcopalian, the Archbishop of Canterbury has been and continues to be a raging idiot. The crusading liberal Anglican/ECUSA clergy are destroying my church. May God have mercy on their souls, I sure don’t.

I know! My usual favorite is when someone gets furious with Allahpundit for his “opinions” . My husband, who is not a regular reader, fell for it and it was a good thing he couldn’t comment. Luckily I was the only one to enjoy the rage and the chance to clue him in.